Chapter 2

EP.2 The First Obstacle

While setting the constraints, I joked about it, thinking that if my sight, taste, and smell were gone, and I couldn't speak, and was given a limited time to live, I might just die right away. How could I live normally? Without being able to watch MyTube, eat delicious food, or smell flowers, I thought it would be better to be put down peacefully and painlessly.

Yeah, that was just a joke. It was nothing more than a whimsical fantasy about what it would be like if I were a game character. I laughed it off, never really thinking it would actually happen.

But it did.

I entered the world of the game.

If you ask why I think so, there's only one answer: I just knew. The moment I woke up, I had this baseless but certain feeling that I was in the game world.

Even with my eyes open, my vision was blank. My body felt foreign, and I couldn't muster any strength. Intangible things of some sort were constantly flowing around me.

And then—

"Aaaaaah—!!"

An excruciating pain, unlike any headache I had ever experienced, surged through my head. It felt as if molten metal was being poured into my brain, searing it.

While my body had never been in the best shape, it wasn't something that truly warranted sympathy. I had never felt such pain in my life. It was beyond what I could endure. I thrashed around on the bed, my mouth opening automatically to scream, but—

"What, what the hell—!"

I could see myself thrashing, the bed I was lying on, the table beside it, the desk and monitor that had changed in location and type, the inside of the computer, the cement that made up the walls, the steel beams and wires inside the walls, the view of the next house beyond the walls, the flickering traffic lights, the sunlight reflecting off the windows, the leaves of the street trees rustling, the people walking on the road, the skeletons, muscles, organs, and blood vessels inside the people—

"Aaah…!"

Information about a circular area centered on me was directly hammered into my brain. I had never experienced anything like this. I had always received information through my eyes, and I had never felt anything like this before. Each wave of information felt like a spike piercing my brain.

"Aaaaaah—!"

I couldn't scream. My mouth opened, and I clearly tried to let out a scream, but every time, my throat closed up, and the pain intensified.

"Why, why is this happening? Why does it hurt so much?"

Even as I writhed in pain, my thoughts continued endlessly. The answer was soon apparent.

The spherical area centered on me—everything within that range was perceived. This was spatial awareness, a power I had seen described in the game. It was described as an overwhelming spatial awareness, the ability to obtain all information within a sphere centered on oneself, which was an absurdly advantageous ability from the perspective of a human with only two eyes. Especially in the front lines where close combat was common, it was even more advantageous.

However, the problem was that my brain wasn't advanced enough to process all the information obtained from this spatial awareness. In simple terms, too much information was being hammered into my brain, and it was sending signals of danger.

Moreover, there was something intangible, something that flowed and converged, something that existed and was constantly changing. This was mana, a new sensation and information I had never detected before. As this information entered the range of my spatial awareness, the pain increased.

Since this was my first time processing such information, my brain didn't know how to filter it out. Thus, the cycle of pain continued.

"Damn it…!!"

It wasn't just that. My brain couldn't handle the pain, and I should have screamed, but I had another constraint besides the spatial awareness and mana affinity.

The "Curse of Silence"

It was described as a simple and trivial constraint, merely reducing interaction. But it meant that I couldn't scream. A scream is, after all, a sound produced by the mouth. The "Curse of Silence" forced all "speech" to stop just before it was uttered, causing additional pain in my throat, as if it were being cut with a knife.

In addition to the pain in my head, the pain in my throat was unbearable. It felt like my throat was being torn apart.

In short:

1. I received information through spatial awareness.

2. My brain suffered from the excessive information.

3. Since my brain, new to spatial awareness, didn't know how to filter the information, the pain continued.

4. The pain caused me to try to scream.

5. The "Curse of Silence" inflicted more pain in my throat.

This cycle continued. The pain repeated, and the suppressed screams were swallowed.

'I'm going to die.'

I felt like I was really going to die from shock. Normally, I should have fainted from such pain, but strangely, I didn't.

I was already crawling on the floor, writhing like a worm in agony.

'I'm going to die.'

I couldn't call for help because I couldn't make a sound. If I could have screamed, maybe someone would have come to help.

My phone? I couldn't see it anywhere in the room. I couldn't even move properly, let alone reach for it.

'I'm… going to die.'

The debate about euthanasia isn't just theoretical. Living can be painful, and sometimes, death can be a desire. My situation was like that. Even though only a few minutes had passed, it felt like my brain was about to fry, and my throat was raw from the pain.

It felt like my throat was being torn apart. I wished it would just be ripped away and let me die.

If I just died like this—

—

'I don't want to.'

The pain was so intense that I wanted to die, but I didn't actually want to.

Even as I thought I might die, the contradictory feeling of not wanting to die arose as my consciousness began to fade.

I had so much left to do. I hadn't even lived half of my life.

'Think.'

The pain in my throat was due to the "Curse of Silence" being triggered by my screams. The reason I screamed was because my brain was burning with pain. The reason my brain was in pain was because the information from spatial awareness was overwhelming.

'This is it.'

The problem was spatial awareness. If I could solve this, the chain reaction would stop.

I needed to adjust spatial awareness. I could either drastically reduce its range or let the information flow out.

I focused.

I wanted the spatial awareness to shrink, to disappear, and to let the information flow out. I didn't want to recognize trivial things like dust in the room. Instantly, the spatial awareness trembled unstably.

The perfect spherical spatial awareness began to crumple and unfold like a crumpled piece of paper. It transformed into various shapes—triangles, squares, pentagons, and indescribable forms. It crumpled and unfolded, changing the way I perceived the world.

From a bird's-eye view to a night-vision-like perspective, the information changed dramatically.

'…! …! …!!'

As the information increased exponentially with each change, my consciousness finally snapped.

* * *

'That was ten days ago.'

Even now, thinking back, it's still terrifying.

It was already unfair to be suddenly thrown into the game world without any fault of my own, but to almost die right after entering was even worse.

If I had died like that, I wouldn't have had a peaceful death.

Anyway, after fainting, I woke up four days later.

If it weren't for the old alarm clock, I wouldn't have known how long I had been unconscious.

'Phew…'

I calmed my boiling insides and adjusted my spatial awareness. I set it to a range where I could barely see the room, about 5 meters in diameter.

The pain was still lingering, and my memory was fuzzy, but I remembered that when it first activated, the range was about 100 meters, so it had shrunk to about one-twentieth of its original size.

It must have shrunk as my brain, consciously or unconsciously, tried to reduce the amount of incoming information.

It's like when a company cuts salaries to reduce costs.

The problem was that the cost-cutting didn't stop there.

I sighed deeply and checked the world through my spatial awareness.

A world of black, with objects represented only by green surfaces. It resembled a military radar from some media, and I wondered if this was how bats perceived the world with sonar.

Compared to the initial spatial awareness, which greedily absorbed all information, this was drastically reduced. It used to detect even the muscle cells in my body, but now it only showed the surface.

Worse, it was fixed and couldn't be changed.

I could adjust the size to some extent, but feeling the spatial awareness constantly was making me feel like I was going to develop a nervous breakdown.

'Damn it…'

When I first… no, when I woke up four days after fainting, I was so confused.

The moment I woke up, my stomach was stuck to my back, and I thought my waist was going to break.

After nearly dying from brain pain, I almost died from hunger and dehydration. The thought of it still gives me chills.

Surviving without water for three days… I could have become a mummy.

It sounds strange, but I didn't know where I was. How could there be no food in a house?

Even if there wasn't, I could have gone out to buy some.

The problem was that I could only see outlines, so I couldn't distinguish what was what.

I had to crawl around, feeling the surroundings with my hands, with the fear of dying from starvation or dehydration.

'I might get PTSD.'

I feel like I'm going to go crazy…

My head still throbbed. Not as much as ten days ago, but if this had happened in the past, I would have been rolling around, screaming.

To develop a tolerance for this… it's driving me insane.

I sighed deeply and sensed the table… no, I detected it.

On the table, there was a box containing a few sheets of paper and a device that looked like a watch.

Blind as I was, I couldn't see the box. If the delivery person hadn't told me where it came from, I wouldn't have known what it was.

〈Shiyo-ram Special Admission Notice〉

Shiyo-ram (始搖籃).

The main stage of the first part of the main story.

An island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with a tower of growth at its center, it is the world's premier superhuman training institution.

Equipped with the latest technology, combining magic and science, it offers high-quality lectures by world-class superhumans, both active and retired, and professors.

It's a top-tier educational institution, with countless features that make it the best in the world.

About 600 students are admitted each year.

90% pass a legitimate exam, and 10% are recommended by influential external forces and internal professors.

The former and the latter. The admission method that doesn't fit either is "special admission."

Special admission students don't need to take an exam. They don't need influential backing or a professor's recommendation. They just need to show up.

'Phew…'

In a game, it would be seen as a device for the player to enter the stage, but thinking about it in reality is a bit bleak.

The problem is my condition for this special admission.

My brain is constantly throbbing from spatial awareness, and if I speak, I pay the price of being mute. I'm also partially blind and have a limited lifespan of ten years, with my senses of taste and smell sealed as a bonus.

My condition is this bad.

Given that it's a top-tier educational institution, the lectures are likely to be of the highest quality.

The question is whether I can handle the difficulty of the lectures before even considering whether to attend.

'…'

But the answer is already decided.

'…I have to go.'

I don't have the confidence to endure the harsh conditions and succeed. I'm not that confident person.

I used to watch MyTube, eat delicious food, drink beverages, and grow flowers on the balcony. I was a lonely internet addict.

But I have to go.

Before coming to this world, when I set the character constraints, I thought that if I couldn't watch MyTube, eat delicious food, or smell flowers, what was the point of living?

That thought hasn't changed. I think it would be better to just die if I have to live like that.

But I don't want to die. Why should I die?

It's a simple problem.

Living like that is worse than dying. But I don't want to die.

So, I want to live like I used to.

Is this just the world?

Even if it's a game world… it's a world where magic and other abilities exist.

There must be a way to remove these constraints.

In the game, the word "semi-permanent" in the constraint descriptions wasn't just there for show. As the story progresses and the character grows, there must be a way to remove the constraints.

Shiyo-ram is the perfect place to find such a method and to develop the strength needed to find it.

I made my decision last night.

I nodded firmly and opened the box.

.

.

.

'But how do I get there?'

I was already facing the first obstacle.